Monthly Archives: March 2016

‘kitcheree for the yogi in a flow ‘
For some years I didn’t have access to a kitchen, and with often traveling and still wanting to cook my own food I improvised a lot with small one dish dishes either on a little electric travel stove or with a small rice cooker. A rice cooker has the advantage that it switches itself to warming when the cooking is done. That allowed me to run numerous yoga workshops, and having my warm kitcheree breakfast after the morning class. Cooking in a rice cooker can help if you are limited in time and still want to eat a warm light meal..
This recipe is based on the ayurvedic recipe of kitcheree , and I adapted it to cooking it in a rice cooker. This is a basic recipe, and you can be as creative with it as you like.
Depending on what kind of rice and beans you use, it may require an overnight soak. Soaking rice and beans adds digestion and is anyway advisable.
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Overnight soak
Preparation 10 min
Cooking around 25 min
Serves 2 people
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Ingredients (if possible organic)
1/2 cup rice basmati (especially for pitta constitution ), for more energy, fiber and nutritionist (for vata) use red or black rice (basmati needs no soak, red and black rice prefer a soak)
1/2 cup mung beans or moong dal (broken mung beans, they cook faster and need less or no soak)
1 tea spoon ginger powder or 1 table spoon diced fresh ginger
1 tea spoon turmeric powder or 1 table spoon diced fresh turmeric
1 tea spoon cumin powder
Optional other ingredients
1 tea spoon coriander powder or 3 table spoons finely chopped coriander leaves
Ghee to garnish (omit for kapha constitution, generous for vata )(coconut oil when vegan)
To add some sweetness
1 chopped banana (or and some pineapple)
1 tea spoon of cinnamon powder
To add some crunchyness
Some almonds, cashew or other nuts (omit for kapha and Pitts)
To add some spiciness
Table spoon of grounded papaya seeds
Sesame seeds to garnish (for vata)
Flax seeds to garnish
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Put all the ingredient together, except the ones used for garnishing and if you use banana (or any other fruit) , into the rice cooker, add 2 cups of water. Soak overnight. When you are ready to cook the kitcheree add the chopped banana. Switch on.
When cooked and ready to serve, scoop the kitcheree into a bowl and add a dot of ghee or coconut oil, and sprinkle some sesame seeds and / or flax seeds on top.
This kitcheree will be more dry then the regular boiled version, to keep it a bit moist, add a bit more water and switch manually from heating to warming a little bit earlier then the cooker will do.
Adding the ghee (oil) as last will give a nice flavour to dish, though in traditional ayurvedic cooking the ghee is added from start to heat and warm the spices, this will absorb all the qualities of turmeric and other spices and make it easier and better for them to be digested
Ready.